Tracks and Trails

Avenel

Avenel Heritage and Nature Trail

Distance

5.5km

Time to complete

2-3 hours

Relative difficulty

Easy

Overview

Avenel township was first established at Hughes Creek crossing on the Melbourne-Sydney Rd around 1838.

With the discovery of gold to the north, traffic increased substantially. The township became a significant way point for travellers. The crossing was bridged and Cobb & Co coaches used the nearby Royal Mail Hotel (1847) as a staging post. This historic building is just one example of many you will visit on your walk.

Increasing passing traffic and an expanding primary industry soon attracted business and residents to the town. As a result, historic architecture is an enduring feature. Construction of the railway station (1872) created new opportunities 1.5km from the town origins. Along with other newcomers, Ned Kelly's family moved here in his youth.

This has been Taungurung country for thousands of years. Stewart Park provides an opportunity to connect with that past and to appreciate an environment of pristine waterways, bountiful bush and magnificent river red gum woodland.

Cleo's Track

Distance

Time to complete

Relative difficulty

The track is slippery when wet. There are long inclines, some quite steep.

Overview

Experience the grandeur of the recently protected Strathbogie Forest. Descend from dry open woodland into ferny wet gullies and the swampy origins of Seven Creeks.

You will be walking an old dirt logging coupe track. In parts dirt bike riders do churn it up. Expect some slippery surfaces and mud in the wet. The return leg is a steady incline with some steep slopes.

It starts in forest and ends in the same forest, but there are different kinds of forest in between. Begin in dry open woodland of stringy bark, messmate and peppermint gum. The first descent is into a blue gum forest as you get deeper into sheltered slopes. Dropping further down, the trees achieve even greater stature, epitomised by incredible mountain gums. Deeper still, explore wet fern gullies where the sun rarely shines. Approaching the bottom, observe increasingly tall blackwood, grand casuarina and white trunked manna.

At the base of the track, a swamp has its own kind of forest. A forest border of gnarled mountain swamp gums surrounds it. This extensive wetland is criss-crossed with rills that form Seven Creeks. Enter at your own risk. Water can be hidden, footing uncertain, sword-grass cuts and snakes live here.

From the bottom, the only way is up. The description above happens in reverse. Inspect a rocky outcrop of stacked granite boulders. Enjoy trees so big they make you wonder, how big were trees here before logging?

Back at the top, your final turn presents a dramatic contrast. After the immersive experience of native forest biodiversity, massive scale monoculture appears. Return to base walking between two very different forms of land use.

CAMPING IS PERMITTEDNo toilets - No potable water - Take your rubbish with you

Campfires are prohibited on days of Total Fire Ban - Vehicles/ motorbikes must be registered, drivers licenced, use formed roadsonly - Dogs must be under direct control at all times and leashedwhen near other people

Golden Mountain Walking Track

Distance

Time to complete

take into account extra time to take in the full sensory experience of this walk.

Relative difficulty

This walk is easy to moderate. Don't rush it, take plenty of time to stop, look and listen.

Overview

This forest drive plus a walk starts 23 km from the Strathbogie Township.

From Euroa it is a 45 minute drive to the start of the track.

The drive takes you deep into the Strathbogie Forest to reach the start point which is 12.7 kms from the end of the bitumen on Tames Rd, or about 25 minutes drive from Strathbogie.

The walk is recommended as a slow ramble towards the peak of Golden Mountain. Walking along old logging tracks you will pass large moss covered granite boulders, Eucalypts including Peppermint Gum and Ti-tree thickets. At the summit you will be rewarded with magnificent views to both the east and west.

Gooram Falls Trail

Distance

400m from car park to falls

Overview

Gooram Falls is a great place to visit for a relaxing day by the water. The two cascading falls are a part of Seven Creeks Wildlife Reserve, with the water source being Seven Creeks. There are two small falls roughly 20 metres apart surrounded by indigenous bushland and rocky outcrops. While you are there, you could explore the other natural attractions of the Strathbogie Ranges.

Mt Wombat Flora & Fauna Reserve

Distance

Time to complete

Relative difficulty

This is a dirt vehicle track with a gradient increasing to a very steep concreted rise to the summit. Visitors need to be self-reliant.Note: vehicles also use this track.

Overview

Mt Wombat and Garden Range Flora and Fauna Reserve, in the area around Mt Wombat, is perhaps the most well known nature reserve in the Strathbogie Ranges.

Most visitors drive to the top of Mt Wombat for a great view over the Tableland to the east and over the plains to the north and west. But few people venture beyond the track and car-park and fewer still explore other parts of the reserve....Why not ?

Violet Town

Honeysuckle Creek Walking Track

Distance

Overview

The Honeysuckle Creek Walking Track and associated features – seats, tables, information signs, and landscaping – is a Violet Town community initiative.

The Honeysuckle Recreational Environment Project began in 2002, and since then has had an active volunteer group taking on the management, preservation, and development of this Reserve area.

Volunteers are planting thousands of native trees, shrubs and grasses in the Reserve. The local primary school and community members are involved in environmental educational activities. An identification brochure for birds that occur along the creek is available locally.

Nagambie and Surrounds

Meville's Lookout Track

Distance

Total distance is 10.5 kilometres. There are several deviations you can opt to investigate

Time to complete

3-4 hours

Relative difficulty

ModerateLoose stones make the track slippery; part of the track is steep and rough at the base of the Lookout. If this foot trail looks too daunting, keep walking along the road for 100m until you get to the Melville's Lookout 2km sign pointing left, which is a less demanding walk

Overview

Melville's Lookout is named after Captain (Francis) Melville, who was a notorious goldrush era bushranger. After being transported to Australia at age 15 for housebreaking, he escaped Port Arthur to live with local aborigines for a year. He came to Victoria in 1851. Within a short time he had formed the Mt Macedon Gang that robbed travellers heading to and from the goldfields.

Mt Black Quarry can be viewed from the Lookout track. Granite blocks were mined here to use in the construction of the Goulburn Weir wall in the 1890's.

This park comprises Victoria's largest remaining box – ironbark forest, consisting of open woodland including ironbark, grey and yellow box and stringy bark. The understory features blackwood, gold dust wattle, silver wattle and drooping cassinia. Grass trees are numerous. Green rock fern is a common ground plant in milder months.

Wildflowers include grassland wood sorrel, shiny everlastings, tall bluebells and Nodding Greenhood orchids, with many more according to the season. Rare spider orchids may be also found.

Ruffy

Ruffy Snow Gum Reserve Walking Track

Distance

3km return

Time to complete

Advanced walkers - 20 min return

Moderate walkers - 1 hour return

Slow walkers - 1½ hours 30 mins return

Relative difficulty

The recommended seasons for this walk are Autumn and Winter. There is uneven ground with logs and branches to step over. Gum Boots are recommended on wetter days. Avoid the tiger snake season unless you enjoy the company of these reptiles.

Overview

This track meanders down an unused road reserve through open narrow-leaf peppermint forest until it crosses a walking bridge and enters the Ruffy Flora Reserve.

A circuit of this reserve takes you through swampy riparian woodlands dominated by ancient mountain swamp gums, past a tiny population of snow gums, remnants of a colder climate and skirts a chain of dark deep billabongs into bandicoot and koala territory.